One of the most electrifying forces in contemporary British jazz: Rosie Frater-Taylor is a virtuoso guitarist and vocalist of remarkable emotional depth.
On her brand new album ‘Featherweight’, Rosie seamlessly weaves rock, alt-pop, neo-soul, new-school jazz, and folk into her singular sound. Drawing inspiration from icons like Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, Kate Bush and a rock-infused roster including John Mayer, Meshell Ndegeocello, St. Vincent and Madison Cunningham, Rosie’s music is a vibrant tapestry of influences. ’Featherweight’ has seen praise across the board from KCRW, BBC Radio 1, Radio 4, MOJO, Hi-Fi and Guitar World to Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page himself, with Jazzwise coining her “fiercely feminine”!
Rosie is also a featured collaborator with the critically acclaimed Modern Jazz & Folk Ensemble, the self-titled LP (also featuring Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee) is out now on Acid Jazz Records. With a 4* review in The Observer and Jazz FM ‘Album Of The Week’ feature to boot, the record aptly celebrates the fruits of genre-crossover in its reimaginings of classic folk repertoire.
“Such a connection with the guitar”
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin
“A gnarly rock foundation heightened by nuanced jazz chords and folk-style finger-picking. Astonishingly mature album for one so young”
MOJO Magazine
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In 2021, Frater-Taylor independently produced and released her acclaimed sophomore album ‘Bloom’, which garnered in excess of 3M streams, a Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards nomination and took Rosie and her band across the UK and Europe for over 60 shows. This included performances at We Out Here Festival on the main stage, the Barbican and several shows alongside Madison Cunningham. The band headed into the studio to record ‘Featherweight’ shortly after, capturing their newly found powerful chemistry. The record asserts an emotional and musical maturity through the exploration of deep emotional themes and a vast selection of sound-worlds tied together by Rosie’s trademark songwriting, guitar and vocal style.
In her teens, Rosie relished the vast record collection of her musician parents, a wide array of artists that would come to influence her own writing: Lewis Taylor, Zero 7, Tania Maria, Seal, Sting, PJ Harvey and more. She started exploring her own love of songwriting, jazz and harmony studying in her teens at the Roundhouse and completing a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Guitar at the Royal Academy Of Music.
Initially receiving drum lessons from her father at the age of 8, Frater-Taylor wrote her first song by the age of 10 and started gigging her original music in and around London at the age of 14. It was at one of these performances that she first caught the attention of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, commenting that Rosie had “such a connection with the guitar”. A decade later, in February 2024, Frater-Taylor represented iconic guitar brand Gibson on ITV News at Ten alongside Page, Brian May, Tony Iommi and James Bay at their flagship store launch.
“the character from Rosie in this, the guitars and how charming they are… wonderful blend of singer songwriter music right here”
Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 1
"It's a bold claim, but one we're prepared to make: there is no other guitarist in the UK right now who sounds quite like Rosie Frater-Taylor... Astounding new album"
Guitar World